Runtime for Android

Important note: The OpenSesame runtime for Android is based on software by others that is no longer developed. As a result, we are unable to make sure that the runtime works with recent versions of Android. Windows 10 tablets with Intel processors are a good alternative.

OpenSesame runtime for Android

Download

You can download the OpenSesame runtime for Android through the Google Play Store:

Usage

When you start the OpenSesame runtime, you will be asked where your experiments are located. By default, OpenSesame assumes that they are in the /sdcard/ folder, or (if it exists) in the /sdcard/Experiments/ folder. If you have no experiments on your device, pressing enter will show the example experiments that are bundled with the .apk.

The Back button serves the same purpose as the Escape key on regular systems, and will exit OpenSesame.

Supported devices

OpenSesame is developed with the Nexus 4 and 9 as reference devices. In general, any device that runs Android 2.2. 'Froyo' or later appears to work.

Disabling automatic updates

If you are using the OpenSesame runtime for Android in a production environment (e.g., while you are running an experiment), it is recommended to disable the Auto-update feature of the Google Play Store, at least for OpenSesame. This will prevent the app from being updated and potentially changing its behavior. In case you need to downgrade to a previous version of the Android runtime, you can find the .apk files for previous releases here.

Automatically start an experiment

If you want to directly launch a specific experiment when the OpenSesame runtime for Android is started, you can create a file called opensesame-autorun.yml in the /sdcard/ folder of your device. This is a YAML file with the following structure:

Developing experiments for Android

backend

The OpenSesame runtime for Android requires the droid backend.

Design tips

Implement most user interactions through the mouse_response item or touch_response plugin. In general, screen touches are registered as mouse clicks. Using keyboard input will work as well, but it will show and hide the virtual keyboard after every key that is entered, which looks messy.

The resolution for the DROID backend is fixed at 1280x800 (landscape). On Android, your experiment will be automatically scaled up or down depending on the resolution of the device, but the resolution that you design with is always 1280x800.

Debugging

Debug output is written to /sdcard/opensesame-debug.txt.

Limitations

The synth item and openexp.synth module are not functional.

The sampler item and openexp.sampler module will ignore panning and pitching.

Know issue: Frozen or misbehaving virtual keyboard

On some devices, the default virtual keyboard is unresponsive (i.e. it shows but doesn't respond to taps) or doesn't respond normally. This appears to happen on phones with recent versions of Android. To work around this issue, you can install a third-party keyboard. Keyboards that have been reported to work are: